Tamalpais Conservation
Club and Civilian
Conservation Corps on Mt.
Tamalpais.
2nd Annual TCC meeting at Rock Springs, 1913. Courtesy
Nancy Skinner Collection
Mount Tamalpais was a very popular
destination for outdoor enthusiasts during
the turn of the century. Before 1917 the
entirety of Mount Tamalpais was owned
by private landowners, who permitted the
recreational use of the land under the
condition that the trails remain clean and
well kept. Due to increasing land
degradation due to mistreatment, a
concerned group of avid hikers saw the
need for more responsible land
stewardship and decided to create the
Tamalpais Conservation Club (TCC). The
purpose of the club was “…the
conservation of things animate and
inanimate in Marin County California, and
particularly the preservation of the scenic
beauties and fauna of Mt. Tamalpais and
its spurs and slopes, and its ultimate
acquisition as a public park”. The first
meeting was held Feb. 27th, 1912 at a
playground in Kentfield. The members
grew from 135 to over 1000 by 1913.
The TCC repaired trails, built signs,
cleared trash, built fire pits and
campgrounds, and provided trail maps and
trail etiquette education. They had their
own club paper named “California- OutOf-Doors”. The TCC held annual meetings
all over the mountain. Even on rainy days
the meetings would still top 100 in
attendance. The festive meetings usually
included updates about restoration and
stewardship efforts, and ended with
entertainment in the form of lively singing,
poetry, and musical performances.
Among the members was William
Kent, a pivotal proponent for the
movement to preserve Mount Tamalpais’
natural and recreational resources. He
donated land to create Muir woods
National Monument in 1908, and in 1917
he worked with the TCC and the Marin
County public to initiate a $3 million bond
measure to designate land for the Marin
Municipal Water District on the eastern
slope of the mountain. In 1920, he
donated Steep Ravine canyon as a public
park (which was later adopted by Mount
Tamalpais State Park).
When plans were underway to
build a highway that would connect Mill
Valley to Stinson Beach (what is now
Panoramic Highway) the TCC knew that
land subdivision and development would
soon follow which would put an end to the
public use of local trails and campsites.
Concerned TCC members worked with the
residents of Marin to raise funds to
purchase portions of the southern and
western face of the mountain to create a
State Park. The dream was finally realized
in 1930 when Mt. Tamalpais State Park
officially opened to the public.
Though the original TCC members
are long gone, their memory and efforts
still live on, you may still recognize their
names all over the mountain: JE Webb
(Webb creek), Sydney Van Wyck Jr. (Van
Wyck Meadow), W.T. Plevin (Plevin cut),
H.S. Allen (Allen Tr.), R.F. ‘Dad’ O’Rourke
(O’Rourke’s bench), Alice Eastwood Tr.,
Verna Dunshee Tr.
Civilian Conservation Corps
on Mt. Tamalpais
CCC on log bridge project on Ben Johnson Trail
Mount Tamalpais company 1920V and 1921V
The Civilian Conservation Corps
(CCC) was the most popular of the New
Deal programs created by President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt to provide relief
and a speedy recovery from the Great
Depression. From 1933 to 1942, the CCC
put some two million young men to work
on a massive building program in
America’s parks and forests. Roads and
trails, campsites and social halls,
amphitheaters and visitor centers
numbered among the many features
constructed by the CCC. It offered the
enrollees a renewed sense of dignity and
hope for the future.
Mount Tamalpais State Park was
among the list of fortunate parks that
benefitted from the enduring
craftsmanship of CCC crews.
CCC crew S.P. 23 was composed of around
190 World War I veterans between the
ages of 35 and 64 years old. Their camp
was set where Alice Eastwood
campground is presently. From April 1934
through April 1940, S.P. 23 built
footbridges, camp stoves, campsites, and
day-use sites. At Bootjack picnic area, you
may still find stone BBQ pits and water
fountains that are the result of CCC
craftsmanship. They restored and built
quite a few trails including Steep Ravine
trail, TCC trail, Troop 80 trail, Bootjack,
Ben Johnson, and the Dipsea trail.
They also placed over 1’110 cubic
yards of overlapping heavy stones within
the Redwood creek bed to prevent erosion
and to provide secure habitat for local
Coho Salmon.
The most prominent CCC projects
in the park are the Mountain Theater and
East Peak Fire Lookout. The CCC members
used 10-15 foot tripods and derrick
riggings to artfully place about 5000
stones weighing between 600 to 4000 lbs.
to create seating for the Sydney B. Cushing
Memorial Amphitheater. The striking
amphitheater holds several thousand
visitors the annual Mountain Play in
addition to various events throughout the
year.
CCC working on the Mountain Theater, 1933
The CCC also built the current Gardiner
fire lookout in 1936 to replace an older
lookout from 1901. The new building used
native stones which were hauled to the
peak using a 1’000 foot long aerial
tramway.
The work of the CCC crews
provided the public with unprecedented
access to Mount Tamalpais’ natural and
historic treasures that will endure for
generations to come.
Poems of Mount Tamalpais from the
Tamalpais Conservation Club’s
California-Out-Of-Doors
“Call of the Trail “
John Parry, April 1920
There’s a charm in the lonely places,
And a lure in the trackless brush,
There are peace and rest for heart and soul.
In the depth of that wondrous hush.
There are sports that beckon so fondly,
Loved trails, golden paths of delight,
Where the breathing of woodland incense.
Adds its sweetness to fancy’s flight…
Oh, how often I’ve thrilled with wonder,
At the grandeur of starlit night;
Or, is idleness, watched those day-dreams,
Flitting by in the warm sunlight.
In the silent places I’ve lingered,
With pleasure akin to fear,
And with grateful hear often murmured,
Oh, God, but it’s good to be here.
“Our Mountain”
A.H. Hutchinson, August 1928
Above the lowlands, rising fair,
Old Tamalpais, thy slopes I see;
The trails that climb thy furrowed sides
All have endless charm for me.
In easy grades they mostly go
That weakest hikers may not fear,
With wild life ever close at hand,
Unspoiled by town or dwelling near.
Here columned trees beside them stand
Or odoriferous shrubs in close array;
Anon, o’er grassy slopes they pass,
Where bees about their business stray.
Squirrels, unaffrighted, beady-eyed,
Rouse to a chattering, saucy din;
Here banks of red, blue or gold
In flowery plenty hem us in.
Afar we gaze as up we climb, O’er lower
heights and hazy vale;
Sometimes we look out o’er the sea
To where shines white a distant sail
Offtimes a drifting bank of fog
Fills all a valley down below,
Through which small peaks like islands
riseDark islands in a sea of snow.
And as the day grown old at last
The sun paints all the western sky,
And hangs cloud banners, rainbow-hued,
Above the dun earth lifter high.
Ah Tamalpais; thou art most fair!
Thy Beauties they are manifold.
I would that I might, worthily
Set forth thy charms in text of gold.
“A Peoples Mountain”
Andrew Wood, September 1939
Great mountain guardian of our western
shore,
Tamalpais! Rock ribbed and towering high,
With shoulders draped by fog sprited from
the sky
And at whose feet old ocean;s breakers
roar.
Stern and friendly says old Tamal lore,
Within these canyons where the west
winds sigh,
Safe were the furred things and birds that
fly,
And man found shelter in the days of yore.
When shall we make a refuge of thy breast,
For all things animate of wood and field,
Holding inviolate each crag and glen,
That thy broad slopes and fog enwreathed
crest
Perpetual harborage may to all life yield,
And make a playground for the sons of
men?
“Tamalpais”
Cristel Hastings, January 1923
"Mount Tamalpais, beauteous one,
Age old, yet blessed with youth!
Thy noble brow, caressed and kissed
By ocean winds that soothe!
Thy breast a haven found for clouds
That drift and linger there,
Till Western winds dispel their mist
And leave thee but more fair.
Thy winding trails, thy veins of life,
thy smile the sun above,
Thou livest with the wind thy breath
In dreams of life-and love
Inscrutable-majestic-proud
Thy valleys worship thee.
Off shore, at night, frail vessels mark
Thy lights far out at sea
Thy lure, thy charm are very new, mist
drenched or touched by frost,
When winds but dare their strength to
Match with thine battles lost.
When moonlight bathes thy brow serene,
When sunlight dries rain's tears,
Thee'll fairer seem, if that can beMore beauty thine with years!"
“Mount Tamalpais”
John Parry, February 1916
Old Tamalpais! Not much in bulk or
altitude
Compared with those huge piles of sterile
pinnacles;
But unique in its fresh and verdant
daintiness,
Wrapped in its fleecy mourning robe of
soft white mist,
Or, outlined dark and clear against the
twilight sky,
It wins our deep affection by its constant
charm.
As if instinct with kindliness and
sympathy,
It radiates a cheery hospitable glow,
Sharing its wealth of beauty with the lesser
hills,
And, with them, in their changing moods,
their light and shade,
Presents a study rich in color, pure in form,
A picture, finished, framed, in God’s most
perfect art.